Protective liners for hard hats have long been known in the art and are disclosed, by way of examples, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,205,508 and 2,339,080. The purpose of such a liner is to provide a cold weather protection for a wearer's head since a conventional hard hat is normally spaced from a wearer's head by means of a harness and, therefore, such a hat provides little if any protection from the cold. A long-existing problem has been to combine a liner with a hard hat in such a way that cold weather protection will be readily available when needed but, when not needed, the liner may be easily removed or shifted into a non-functional position. If such a liner extends into the head space defined by the harness, then removal of that liner in warmer weather will require readjustment of the headband size of the harness, whereas if the liner extends into the space between the harness and the hard hat, detachment of such a liner may first require removal of the harness from the hat. In either case, considerable time-consuming manipulation is required in order to attach or detach such liners.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,205,508 and 3,594,814 disclose constructions designed to facilitate retraction of a liner when cold weather protection for the face, neck, and ears is not required. While the provision of a liner which may be readily extended and retracted reduces some of the aforementioned problems, it does not eliminate those problems because the presence of a liner, even when fully retracted, may still be objectionable under warm weather conditions. The inconvenience of periodically detaching and reattaching a liner, commonly accompanied by the steps of disconnecting, adjusting, and remounting a harness, still exists with the use of such retractable liners even though such operations may be performed less frequently.
This invention is therefore concerned with an improved protective face hood for use with hard hats, such hood being readily attachable and detachable from a hard hat whenever removal and replacement are desired. While such removal would commonly occur when improved conditions no longer require cold weather protection for a wearer's face, neck, and ears, the hood might also be removed for cleaning or repair, or replacement by a new hood. Ease of detachability is also important where, for example, a hood has become wet from rain or snow and removal is desired to facilitate drying of the hood, possibly while a replacement hood is being used.
A further object of this invention is to provide an easily removable and attachable hood for hard hats which is readily adaptable for use with hats of different size, style, and configuration. While all conventional hard hats have rigid crown and brim portions which are integrally formed from impact-resistant plastic or, less frequently, from metal, differences do exist in the sizes and shapes of the brims, the contours of the crowns, and the configurations and numbers of stiffening ribs extending across such crowns. The hood of this invention is designed to cooperate with all conventional hard hats regardless of such variations.
One aspect of this invention lies in recognizing that many of the aforementioned problems associated with cold weather hoods or liners for hard hats may be overcome by providing a hood which fits over rather than within such a hat. The hood of this invention takes the form of a knitted highly-stretchable tube, the upper portion of which is dimensioned to be stretched about the outside of a hard hat. Sliding movement (both rotational and longitudinal) between such a hood and the hat upon which it is fitted is prevented by the provision of at least one slit between the hood's upper and lower portions which receives a part of the brim, preferably the front or beak portion of that brim. Because of its stretchability, the hood may easily accommodate hats of different size. In the best mode presently known for practicing the invention, such adaptability is enhanced by providing an opening at the upper end of the tube through which a portion of the crown of the hard hat projects. Such opening is bounded by an elasticized border and, depending on the size of the hat involved, a greater or lesser extent of the crown projects upwardly through the opening of the hood.
Below the laterally-elongated brim-receiving slit of the hood is at least one face opening with a stretchable elasticized border. The lower portion of the hood is adapted to cover the face, the neck, and ears of a wearer with the face opening(s) exposing at least the wearer's eyes. In the case of a hood having only a single stretchable face opening, such opening may if desired be expanded to expose the entire front portion of the wearer's face. At the user's option, the front of the lower face mask portion may be raised to uncover the wearer's face while leaving the ears and rear neck covered, or the entire face mask portion may be lifted so that the bottom opening of the hood is reverted and extends about the crown of the hat. In the latter case, the folded portion of the face mask may nevertheless be adjusted to extend radially inwardly beneath the brim of the hat to provide a porous annular band which partially closes the annular space between the brim of the hat and a wearer's head.
While a single slit, preferably located directly above the face opening of the hood, is generally sufficient to anchor the hood against displacement with respect to the hard hat, in a second embodiment of the invention two such slits are provided to perform the anchoring function. Ideally, such slits are diametrically disposed with one being located at the rear of the hood and the other being located at the front of the hood directly above the expandable face opening.
Other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the specification and drawings.